Control Apparatus for Industrial Plant Data Processing and Associated Methods

ABSTRACT

The invention is related to the field of control apparatus, and in particular, to control apparatus configured to allow a user to control the processing of data. In particular, this invention relates to controlling the processing of industrial plant data by controlling selection of a geographical area. The selection of a geographical area may be implemented by controlling a display using a user interface controller.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional applicationSer. No. 14/984,388, filed on Dec. 30, 2015, the entire contents ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and for allpurposes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This application is related to the field of control apparatus, and inparticular, to control apparatus configured to allow a user to controlthe processing of data. In particular, this application relates tocontrolling the processing of data by controlling selection of ageographical area. The selection of a geographical area may beimplemented by controlling a display using a user interface controller.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the oil and gas industry, for example, the efficiency of execution ofa potential industrial plant (e.g. oil well) is extremely important asit has a significant impact on the capital cost of the operation. Forexample, the capital costs may be increased by technical difficultiesrelating to drilling. More specifically, if an oil well is drilled inthe wrong location, the drilling phase may be lengthened or made moredifficult (e.g. through geological factors such as rock type and oildepth) and/or the yield may be less than optimal.

Capital expenditures is particularly imported in engineering in theUpstream Energy sector, and so facilitating efficient decision making ata fundamental level has the potential to generate a large followingwithin the industry.

To give an indication of the scale of the issue in monetary terms,Canadian Oil and Gas Exploration & Production revenue for 2015 wasoriginally predicted to be $104.2 billion dollars. Of this, $45.9billion was forecasted capital expenditures, with 6982 wells beingdrilled. Estimating 1% of the capital expenditures for well constructionengineering results in $458 million in capital spent on wellconstruction engineering.

Given the large investment required, it is important that location andhistorical information is available in an accessible format at theplanning stage. This is particularly the case for industrial plantswhose location is limited by natural geographic features (e.g. miningand oil and gas wells).

In the past, geographical and historical data for previous industrialplants in the oil and gas sector have been stored in a conventionaldatabase. For example, Current GIS systems in the marketplace (IHSAccumap, GeoLogic GeoScout, Canadian Discovery Frac Database) only takepublicly available information and digitize it. Due to the largequantity of data (corresponding to hundreds of thousands of industrialplants, each plant's performance being measured by a variety ofperformance metrics), this information has not been available in asufficiently accessible way because of the processing power required tofilter and process the data to allow a user to interact with it.

For example, CNBC published an online news article entitled “Oil firmsare swimming in data they don't use” (author: Tom DiChristopher; date: 5Mar. 2015). The article reported that a study by McKinsey & Companyfound that the less than 1 percent of the information gathered by theoil industry was being made available to the people in the industry whomake decisions. The article suggested that, as a result, drillers arealmost certainly operating below peak performance. The article alsohighlighted a report by consulting firm Bain & Co which estimated thatbetter data analysis could help oil and gas companies boost productionby 6 to 8 percent. The article concludes by stating that a problem isthat while oilfield sensors offer real-time data on operations, theinformation is usually used to make immediate, binary decisions ratherthan being stored, filtered and analysed to inform future decisionmaking.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with a first aspect, there is provided a control apparatuscomprising:

memory comprising a database having data on industrial plantperformance, each datum associated with a location;

a display configured to display a map comprising a selected firstgeographical area, the first geographical area including a first subsetof the corresponding locations in the database;

a processor configured to perform a first statistical analysis on theindustrial plant performance data associated with the first subset ofthe corresponding locations in the database, and to enable display ofresults of the first statistical analysis on the displayed map; and

a user interface controller configured to allow the user to change theselected geographical area displayed from the first geographical area toa second geographical area, the second geographical area including asecond subset of the corresponding locations in the database, the secondsubset being different from the first subset;

wherein the processor is configured, in response to a change in thegeographical area being selected, to perform a second statisticalanalysis on the industrial plant performance data associated withlocations within the second selected geographical area and to enabledisplay of results of the second statistical analysis on the displayedmap.

The first and second statistical analyses may be the same with exceptthat they are carried out on different data. That is, the secondstatistical analysis may be a rerun of the first statistical analysis onthe second subset of data. The second statistical analysis may beperformed automatically in response to the change in selectedgeographical area.

The selected geographical area may correspond to the area of a mapdisplayed on the display, such that the user interface controller isconfigured to allow the user to change the selected geographical area bychanging the area of a map displayed on the display.

The user interface controller may be configured to allow the user tochange the selected geographical area by one or more of scrolling andzooming the area of a map displayed on the display. For example, if thearea of the map displayed corresponds to the selected area, zooming themap may change the displayed area and so change the selected area. Itwill be appreciated that zooming a map may comprise changing the scaleof the map displayed.

The industrial plant data may correspond to oil drilling industrialplants.

The industrial plant data may correspond to mining industrial plants.

The control apparatus may be configured to: in response to a user input,display a portion of the database corresponding to data associated withthe selected locations.

The control apparatus may be configured to:

in response to a first user input, filter data in the database togenerate a filtered subset of corresponding locations; and

in response to a second user input, display a map corresponding to thefiltered data.

The control apparatus may be configured:

to determine, as part of the statistical analysis, one or more of theaverage and the standard deviation parameters corresponding to thedisplayed subset of locations; and

to enable display of the determinations by distinguishing locationsbased on how the parameter associated with each location compares withone or more of the determined average and the determined standarddeviation.

The control apparatus may be configured: to enable, in response to auser input, selection of a geographical area by selecting a portion of adisplayed map.

The control apparatus may be configured to: in response to a user input,enable selection of a geographical area by selecting a characteristicfrom a list of characteristics. The list of characteristics may compriseone or more of: rock formation, altitude, proximity to water source, andgeographical aspect.

The control apparatus may be configured to: perform the statisticalanalysis on corresponding locations within the selected geographicalarea only when the number of corresponding locations is below apredetermined threshold.

The industrial plant locations may be displayed on the map usingindustrial plant icons. The results of the statistical analysis may bedisplayed on the displayed map by differentiating the industrial planticons.

The industrial plant icons may be differentiated based on thestatistical analysis using one or more of: different colours; differentshapes; different sizes; different images; and different line styles.

The statistical analysis may comprise ranking the wells corresponding tolocations within the selected geographical area.

The control apparatus may form part of for example, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a smartphone, a pager, a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a computer, or any combination of the aforementioned.

A user input may comprise a touch gesture (e.g. with a touchpad ortouchscreen). A touch gesture may comprise one or more of: a multi-touchgesture input (e.g. pinch-in or pinch-out gesture); a single-touchgesture; a swiping gesture; and a tap gesture. A user input maycomprise, for example, clicking and dragging a mouse; pressing aphysical button; and/or interacting with user-interface elementsdisplayed on the screen (e.g. icons, zoom level bar, navigation arrows).

A user interface controller may be considered to be a component whichallows the user to control the device. A user interface controller mayor may not display or otherwise provide information dynamically to theuser.

In accordance with a further aspect, there is provided a method, themethod comprising:

accessing a database having data on industrial plant performance, eachdatum associated with a location;

displaying a map comprising a selected first geographical area, thefirst geographical area including a first subset of the correspondinglocations in the database;

performing a first statistical analysis on the industrial plantperformance data associated with the first subset of the correspondinglocations in the database, and to enable display of results of the firststatistical analysis on the displayed map;

changing the selected geographical area displayed from the firstgeographical area to a second geographical area, the second geographicalarea including a second subset of the corresponding locations in thedatabase, the second subset being different from the first subset; and

performing, in response to a change in the geographical area beingselected, a second statistical analysis on the industrial plantperformance data associated with locations within the second selectedgeographical area and to enable display of results of the secondstatistical analysis on the displayed map.

In accordance with a further aspect, there is provided a controlapparatus comprising:

memory comprising a database having data relating to multiple parametersassociated with industrial plant performance, each datum associated witha location;

a display configured to display a map comprising a selected firstgeographical area, the first geographical area including a subset of thecorresponding locations in the database;

a user interface controller configured to allow the user to select aperformance indicator, the performance indicator corresponding to arelationship between one or more parameters from the database;

a processor configured to perform a statistical analysis, based on theselected performance indicator, on the industrial plant performance dataassociated with the subset of the corresponding locations in thedatabase, and to enable display of results of the first statisticalanalysis on the displayed map.

Corresponding computer programs are also disclosed. Computer programsmay be stored on a non-transitory medium (e.g. a CD, a DVD).

In accordance with a further aspect, there is provided a computerprogram, the computer program, when run on a computer, being configuredto:

enable access of a database having data on industrial plant performance,each datum associated with a location;

enable display of a map comprising a selected first geographical area,the first geographical area including a first subset of thecorresponding locations in the database;

perform a first statistical analysis on the industrial plant performancedata associated with the first subset of the corresponding locations inthe database, and to enable display of results of the first statisticalanalysis on the displayed map;

enable changing of the selected geographical area displayed from thefirst geographical area to a second geographical area, the secondgeographical area including a second subset of the correspondinglocations in the database, the second subset being different from thefirst subset; and

perform, in response to a change in the geographical area beingselected, a second statistical analysis on the industrial plantperformance data associated with locations within the second selectedgeographical area and to enable display of results of the secondstatistical analysis on the displayed map.

In accordance with a further aspect, there is provided a computerprogram, the computer program, when run on a computer, being configuredto:

enable access of a database having data relating to multiple parametersassociated with industrial plant performance, each datum associated witha location;

enable display of a map comprising a selected first geographical area,the first geographical area including a subset of the correspondinglocations in the database;

enable selection of a performance indicator, the performance indicatorcorresponding to a relationship between one or more parameters from thedatabase;

perform a statistical analysis, based on the selected performanceindicator, on the industrial plant performance data associated with thesubset of the corresponding locations in the database, and to enabledisplay of results of the first statistical analysis on the displayedmap.

These aspects may provide a means to efficiently display, filter, andanalyze historical and location-dependent industrial plant executiondata in a comparative manner to optimize engineering decision makingprocesses. The system may permit rapid analysis and filtration ofcomplex variables in order to perform statistical analyses for decisionmaking purposes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various objects, features and advantages of the invention will beapparent from the following description of particular embodiments of theinvention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The drawings arenot necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed uponillustrating the principles of various embodiments of the invention.Similar reference numerals indicate similar components.

FIG. 1 is a display screen showing a map indicating the location of anumber of industrial plants in the oil and gas sector.

FIG. 2 is a display screen showing a zoomed-in map indicating thelocation of a number of industrial plants in the oil and gas sector.

FIG. 3 is a display screen showing a further zoomed-in map indicatingthe location of a number of industrial plants in the oil and gas sector.

FIG. 4 is a display screen showing data corresponding to the displayedmap.

FIG. 5-7 is a display screen showing filtering of the data.

FIG. 8 is a display screen showing a map of the filtered data.

FIG. 9 is a display screen showing graphical data corresponding to aselected industrial plant.

FIG. 10 is a display screen showing graphical data corresponding to themap-displayed industrial plants.

FIG. 11 is a display screen showing graphical data corresponding to aselected industrial plant.

FIG. 12 is a display screen showing graphical data corresponding to themap-displayed industrial plants.

FIG. 13 is a display screen showing graphical data corresponding to themap-displayed industrial plants.

FIG. 14 is a display screen showing the user interacting with a map ofthe filtered data.

FIG. 15 is a display screen showing a report generated corresponding tothe user-interaction of FIG. 14.

FIG. 16 is a display screen showing the results of a scrolling action.

FIG. 17 is a display screen showing the results of a zooming action.

FIG. 18 is a display screen showing another method of selecting ageographical area.

FIG. 19 is a display screen showing another method of selecting ageographical area.

FIG. 20 is a schematic of the control apparatus.

FIG. 21 is a schematic of the method carried out by the controlapparatus.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference to the figures, a control apparatus is described. In thiscase, the control apparatus comprises: memory comprising a databasehaving data on industrial plant performance, each datum associated witha location; a display configured to display a map comprising a selectedfirst geographical area, the first geographical area including a firstsubset of the corresponding locations in the database; a processorconfigured to perform a first statistical analysis on the industrialplant performance data associated with first subset of the correspondinglocations in the database, and to enable display of results of the firststatistical analysis on the displayed map; a user interface controllerconfigured to allow the user to change the selected geographical areadisplayed from the first geographical area to a second geographicalarea, the second geographical area including a second subset of thecorresponding locations in the database, the second subset beingdifferent from the first subset; wherein the processor is configured, inresponse to a change in the selected geographical area being displayed,to perform a second statistical analysis on the industrial plantperformance data associated with locations within the second selectedgeographical area and to enable display of results of the secondstatistical analysis on the displayed map.

Plant performance data may comprise one or more of: building progress(i.e. indicating how close the industrial plant is to completion);output (e.g. oil production for an oil well); down-time data (e.g. howmuch time is the plant not operational).

Specific to Upstream oil and gas development, the technology isapplicable to drilling, completions, facility and pipeline construction,and production operations. It is also applicable to other industrieswhere comparative data analysis techniques can be automated. Displayingthe information in an aggregated and comparative manner is particularlyuseful for operational information in which geographic variation canexist in data (e.g. for mining, the rock types in a particular locationmay affect the efficiency of the drilling of the mine borehole).

FIG. 1 depicts the display of a first embodiment. In this case, thedisplay 101 is a touch screen. That is, in this case, the screen is boththe display and the user interface controller. It will be appreciatedthat in other embodiments, the display and the user interface controllermay be separate (e.g. a screen and mouse).

The embodiment of FIG. 1 also comprises a memory (not shown) whichcomprises a database having data on industrial plant performance, eachdatum associated with a location. In this case, the industrial plantsare in the oil and gas sector and correspond to, for example, existingoil wells (pre- and post-completion) and oil refineries.

In FIG. 1, the screen is showing a zoomed-out map 102 (corresponding toCanada). Because of the large number of industrial plants within thedisplayed location, the control apparatus is configured to group theindustrial plant locations in clusters, and indicate the location of theclusters using user interface icons 111. In this case, the cluster userinterface icons comprise a number indicating the number of industrialplant locations stored in the database in that cluster. It will beappreciated that the cluster user interface icons may be selectable byinteracting with the user interface controller (e.g. by tapping ordouble-clicking). That is, in response to the cluster user interfaceicon being selected, the apparatus may be configured to show a mapcorresponding to the industrial plants in the cluster.

FIG. 2 shows the display when the user has navigated to a smaller areausing a combination of zooming and/or scrolling the map. In this case,the map is zoomed using a multi-touch gesture input (e.g. pinch-in orpinch-out gesture); and the map is scrolled using swiping gestures. Itwill be appreciated that, in other embodiments, the controller may beconfigured to enable zooming and/or scrolling in different ways—forexample, clicking and dragging a mouse; and/or interacting withuser-interface elements displayed on the screen (e.g. icons, zoom levelbar, navigation arrows). In this case, the selected geographical areacorresponds to the area of a map displayed on the display, such that theuser interface controller is configured to allow the user to change theselected geographical area by changing the area of a map displayed onthe display.

Although the geographical area of the displayed map in FIG. 2 is smaller(because is has been zoomed in), there are still too many industrialplants with locations within the map to allow each industrial plant tobe identified individually. In this case, the cluster user interfaceicons (e.g. 211 a, 211 b) are configured to correspond to governmentdesignated regions (e.g. townships). As with the map of FIG. 1, thedisplayed maps of this embodiment comprise physical and/or non-physicalfeatures to enable the user to understand the portion of the map whichis being displayed. For example, the features may comprise one or moreof: natural physical features (e.g. lakes 202 b, rivers 202 a,coastline, mountains, contour lines); settlement locations (e.g. towns,villages, cities); man-made structures (e.g. roads, train tracks); andnon-physical features (e.g. boundaries between states, provinces,townships, counties etc.).

In this case, the user selects the cluster user interface icon 211 acorresponding to a particular township and, in response, the controlapparatus zooms and/or scrolls the map to that township. The results areshown in FIG. 3. Because there are a sufficiently small number ofindustrial plant locations within the selected township, the controlapparatus identifies the location of the each of the correspondingindustrial plants individually using an industrial plant icon 312 a-n.In this case, there are 14 individually identified plants. In otherembodiments, the screen size and/or icon size may allow up to 500individually identified plants.

The industrial plant icons 312 a-n indicate the location of thecorresponding plant either by being over the corresponding location(e.g. 312 a) on the map or, if for example, the locations of multipleplants are too close together (e.g. 312 k-m), by a line from the icon tothe corresponding location on the map. In this case, the industrialplant icons 312 a-n also indicate the type of the plant using an imagewithin the icon. In this case, all of the industrial plants are oilrigs. If the map were configured to show, for example, oil refineriesthe corresponding icon may have an image denoting the location as thelocation of an oil refinery. It will be appreciated that the industrialplant icons may indicate other information such as: plant ownership oroperator; plant stage (e.g. projected plant; pre-completion oil rig;post-completion oil rig).

In this embodiment, when the number of locations within the selectedarea is sufficiently small to allow them to be displayed individually,the processor of the control apparatus is configured to perform a firststatistical analysis on the industrial plant performance data associatedwith first subset of the corresponding locations in the database, and toenable display of results of the first statistical analysis on thedisplayed map. That is, in this case, the selected area for statisticalanalysis corresponds to the displayed area of the map when the area ofthe map is sufficiently below a threshold area (the threshold in thiscase relating to how many individual plants can be displayed). Byrestricting the selection of an area for statistical analysis in thisway, the processor does not attempt to perform the statistical analysison a large area with a corresponding large number of data points. Thismay speed up navigation when large areas are being viewed.

In this case, the industrial plant icons 312 a-n also indicate theresults of a statistical analysis carried out on the displayedindustrial plants shown on the map. In this case, the controller isconfigured to perform a statistical analysis on plants within the map(which corresponds to the selected geographical area in this case) anddisplay the results. In this case, the statistical analysis comprisescalculating the average (the mean in this case, but other averages maybe used in other embodiments) and standard deviation of the drillingrate of the oil-rigs and determining which of the displayed industrialplants have a drilling rate greater than one standard deviation overaverage; which of the displayed oil-rig locations have a drilling ratewithin one standard deviation of average; and which of the displayedoil-rig locations have a drilling rate lower than one standard deviationbelow average. It will be appreciated that the statistical analysis maybe performed on other parameters or combinations of parameters. Theseparameters may be key performance indicators (KPIs) associated with aparticular field (e.g. drilling rate in a drilling context).

Other embodiments may allow user-selectable aggregation and analysis ofdata. For example, other embodiments may allow the user to customize the“binning” of the data and the type of statistical analysis (T-score,S-score, etc.). Other embodiments, may allow the user to defineuser-defined statistical comparators (Key Performance Indicators—KPI).In addition to the predetermined KPIs (meters/day; $/meter;Tonnes*meter/stages, IP30/$; IP30/tonnes, where IP (Initial ProductionRate) is the initial flow rate of the well, typically 24-72 hours, andIP30 is the average Initial production for the 1st 30 Days; and fracintensity).

Other embodiments may be configured to allow statistical analysis ofhistorical data in relation to engineering and operational inputparameters.

In this case, the industrial plant icons 312 g,i,j corresponding tolocations having a drilling rate greater than one standard deviationover average are displayed with a double-line outline. The industrialplant icons 312 e,f,h,k-n corresponding to locations having a drillingrate within one standard deviation of average are displayed with asingle-line outline. The industrial plant icons 312 a-d corresponding tolocations having a drilling rate lower than one standard deviation belowaverage are displayed with a dotted outline. It will be appreciated thatother graphical indications may be used to indicate the results of thestatistical analysis. For example, the size, colour and/or shape of theindustrial plant icons may be used to indicate the results of thestatistical analysis. In this way, the outliers can be quicklyidentified and each plant's performance ranked.

From the map of FIG. 3, it is apparent that there is a grouping oflow-performance wells in the top left 312 a-d, whereas thehigh-performance wells 312 g,h,i are towards the bottom right. This mayindicate that the geological conditions are more favorable in locationscorresponding to the bottom right of the map. It will be appreciatedthat this information is more readily extracted from a map view thanfrom a database view of the database. This information may be used indeterminations of future oil-rig locations and for identification ofoptimum executional practices.

In this case, the user can also view the corresponding database portion.FIG. 4 shows the database view corresponding to the map view of FIG. 3.That is, the database view shows a scrollable subset of the databasecorresponding to the locations within the corresponding displayed map.In this way, the user can control which subset of the database is shownby controlling the extent and position of the map. As with the map, thetuples or rows of the database are visually distinguished based on thestatistical analysis. In this case, the industrial plant data rows 422 icorresponding to locations having a drilling rate greater than onestandard deviation over average are displayed with a double-lineunderline. The industrial plant data rows 422 f,h,k-m corresponding tolocations having a drilling rate within one standard deviation ofaverage are displayed with a single-line underline. The industrial plantdata rows 422 d corresponding to locations having a drilling rate lowerthan one standard deviation below average are displayed with a dottedunderline. It will be appreciated that other graphical indications maybe used to indicate the results of the statistical analysis. Forexample, the size, colour (e.g. red for below average; yellow foraverage; and green for above average) and/or font may be used toindicate the results of the statistical analysis.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show how the user can interact with the database subsetcorresponding to the mapped area to filter out undesired data. In thiscase, the user is particularly interested in oil-rigs which have beendrilled in a particular rock formation (Cardium, in this case); andoil-rigs with a particular well-structures (horizontal or directionalwells). That is, the user may be planning to start a new well in aCardium rock formation and may know from surveys that a vertical wellmay not be sufficient to access the oil. In this case, the user canselect the column headers which show a corresponding list 521, 621 ofthe available entries in that list. By selecting some of the entries(indicated by a tick) and not selecting other available entries(indicated by a circle), the user can filter the rows or tuples in thedatabase subset. FIG. 5 show how the user has selected cardiumformations and FIG. 6 shows how the user has selected Directional andHorizontal wells.

FIG. 7 shows the results of the filtering. In this case, the controllingapparatus is configured to re-run (e.g. automatically) the statisticalanalysis when the filtering is complete or at each filtering stage. Itwill be appreciated that the removal or addition of certain industrialplant data may affect the average and standard deviation of theremaining filtered industrial plant data. For example, although the‘Shale v2’ well was within 1 standard deviation of the average beforefiltering (indicated by a single underline in FIG. 4), after filtering,the ‘Shale v2’ well is now more than one standard deviation aboveaverage (indicated by a double underline in FIG. 7). It will beappreciated that, in some embodiments, the filtering may be performed inthe map view (e.g. using a list and/or filtering wells to have aparticular parameter, such as rock formation, the same as an individualselected plant).

The user then reverts to the map view, as shown in FIG. 8. As shown inFIG. 8, the industrial plant icons 812 a-d,f,h-i have been updated toreflect the filtering of the plant data (few industrial plants areindicated on the map) and the new statistical analysis on the filtereddata.

This embodiment is configured to allow the user to move back and forthbetween the database view, a report view (in which data from thedatabase is collated and displayed in the form of a report) and the mapview. In this case, the user wishes to see data corresponding to the‘Shale v2’ oil-rig which is indicated by the industrial plant icon 812 hon the bottom right of the map view. To view the desired report, theuser interacts with the industrial plant icon 812 h to select the ‘Shalev2’ industrial plant icon and selects from a number of data displayoptions. In this case, the user wishes to see how the actual cost of theplant compares to the estimated cost, so the user selects theappropriate data display option. The resulting data report display isshown in FIG. 9.

In this case, the user can also compare the estimated and actual costsof the other industrial plants in the map view (as shown in FIG. 8).This is shown in FIG. 10. In this case, the industrial plants aredisplayed in order of drilling rate (which is the parameter used in thestatistical analysis, in this case).

It will be appreciated that the control apparatus may be configured toallow the user to select a different statistical analysis and to displaythe results of the selected statistical analysis on the display (e.g. inthe map view, in the database view and/or in a graphical format). Forexample, the control apparatus may be configured, in this case, to allowthe user to elect to perform a statistical analysis on the estimated andactual costs of the displayed industrial plants. For example, thecontrol apparatus may be configured by the user to calculate the averageand standard deviation of the actual cost of the industrial plant. Thiswould allow the user to see from the map view that, although the ‘Shalev2’ oil rig has an above-average drilling rate, the actual cost of the‘Shale v2’ oil rig is also higher than average. In other embodiments,statistical analysis may be performed on a combination of parameters.For example, the statistical analysis may compare the actual costdivided by the drilling rate. Parameters stored directly in the databaseor derived parameters (calculated from raw data in the database) mayinclude, but are not limited to: drilling speed; depth of drilling (fora well or particular drill bit); cost per meter drilled; average cementreturns to surface versus % excess cement pumped.

The controller may be configured to allow the user to select aperformance indicator (e.g. corresponding to a parameter stored directlyin the database or a derived parameter) for statistical analysis. Thatis, a user interface controller configured to allow the user to select aperformance indicator, the performance indicator corresponding to arelationship between one or more parameters from the database; and theprocessor may be configured to perform a statistical analysis based onthe selected performance indicator on the industrial plant performancedata associated with the subset of the corresponding locations in thedatabase, and to enable display of results of the first statisticalanalysis on the displayed map.

The control apparatus may be configured to visually identify the best orworst industrial plant on the display based on a particular parameterincluding, but not limited to (e.g.: fastest or longest drill bit run,most efficient drilling performance (m/d), lowest cost per meterdrilled, average cement returns to surface versus % excess cementpumped).

FIGS. 11-13 show a different reporting display. In FIG. 11, the variousdrills used to create the ‘Shale v2’ well are shown ordered by depthdrilled. The vertical bars indicate the depth range at which each drillwas used. The circles indicate the drilling rate for each drill. In thiscase, the user navigated to the display shown in FIG. 11 by selecting aparticular industrial plan icon and selecting a drilling report from arevealed list.

From FIG. 11, the user can select to see the corresponding data for theother plants in the selected area. FIG. 12 shows a comparison of all thedrills used to drill all of the displayed industrial plants. As in FIG.12, the wells are ordered by the average drilling rate.

FIG. 13 shows an alternative representation of the data in FIG. 12. Inthis case, the drilling depth for each rig is shown with time from aninitial drilling-start time (e.g. corresponding to well spudding). Inthis case, the control apparatus is configured to compare the variousphases of the subset of wells in the selected geographical area anddetermine which of the drills used in each phase was the most effective(i.e. had the highest drilling rate or productivity). From thisinformation, the control apparatus is configured to calculate atheoretically optimum drilling schedule, which takes into account thedrills with the greatest drilling rate and the downtime necessary tochange drills. That is, embodiments may be configured to combineinformation from the plants within the selected area to presentstatistical best-efforts results.

In FIG. 14, the user has returned to the map view and is in the processof selecting a new report to view. In this case, the user has selected aparticular industrial plant (the ‘NFL exp’ oil rig industrial plant icon1412 i in this case). Selecting a particular industrial plant, in thiscase, displays a brief summary 1431 of data associated with thisindustrial plant including when drilling was commenced (spud date);average drilling rate; geological formation; and drill type. The summaryalso includes a ‘Reports’ user interface element 1432 which, whenselected, allows the user to select which report 1433 a-c to view. Inthis case, the user selects to view the ‘mud report’ 1433 c. The mudreport (as shown in FIG. 15) is derived by examining the physicalproperties of the drilling medium (most commonly called drilling mud).In this case, the density of the material for a given depth isdisplayed. This information is important as the drilling fluid densityrequired to control reservoir pressure during drilling operations isindicative of the reservoir pressure and corresponding potentialproductivity of the wellbore.

After viewing the mud report, the user navigates back to the map view(as shown in FIG. 8). The user then wishes to view a differentgeographic area and so scrolls the map. In this case, this includes newindustrial plant locations 1612 o in the displayed map. In response tothe selected geographical area being changed by being scrolled, theprocessor is configured to perform a new statistical analysis on theindustrial plant performance data associated with locations 1612 a-d,i,owithin the second selected geographical area and to enable display ofresults of the second statistical analysis on the displayed map. Asbefore, the results of the statistical analysis are shown by displayinga border on each industrial plant icon which is dependent on how theparameter for that industrial plant compares with the results of thestatistical analysis.

The user then wishes to view a larger geographical area and so zooms outusing a pinch-out multi-touch gesture. In this case, the zooming-outresults in additional industrial plants 1712 p,q being included in theselected displayed geographical area. In response to the geographicalarea being changed by being zoomed, the processor is configured toperform a new statistical analysis on the industrial plant performancedata associated with locations within the second selected geographicalarea and to enable display of results of the second statistical analysison the displayed map. As before, the results of the statistical analysisare shown by displaying a border on each industrial plant icon which isdependent on how the parameter for that industrial plant compares withthe results of the statistical analysis. For example, based on the newstatistical analysis, the industrial plant 1612 o which was within onestandard deviation of the average based on the industrial plants withinthe geographical area of FIG. 16 is not more than one standard deviationbelow average as indicated by the corresponding plant icon 1712 o inFIG. 17.

It will be appreciated that there may be other ways of selecting ageographical area within a display. In the case shown in FIG. 18, thecontrol apparatus is configured to: in response to a user input, enableselection of a geographical area by selecting a portion of a displayedmap. This is shown in FIG. 18 where the user has selected a geographicalarea by drawing a line around a portion of the displayed map. Inresponse to this new selection, the control apparatus is configured toperform a new statistical analysis on the industrial plant performancedata associated with locations within the second selected geographicalarea and to enable display of results of the second statistical analysison the displayed map. In this case, one of the industrial plants shownin FIG. 17 (indicated by plant icon 1812 b) as being below average isnow within one standard deviation of being average. Those plants whichare not part of the statistical analysis are, in this case, indicated bythe corresponding plant icons 1812 i,o,p not having a border.

In the case shown in FIG. 19, the control apparatus is configured to: inresponse to a user input, enable selection of a geographical area byselecting a characteristic from a list of characteristics. This is shownin FIG. 19 where the user has selected a geographical area by definingthat the industrial plants must be within 50 km of a water source(boundary shown by dashed line 1951) and to be below 1000 m above sealevel (boundary shown by dash-dot line 1952). In response to this newselection, the control apparatus is configured to perform a newstatistical analysis on the industrial plant performance data associatedwith locations within the second selected geographical area and toenable display of results of the second statistical analysis on thedisplayed map.

It will be appreciated that the results of the statistical analysis maybe displayed in other ways. For example, the area of the displayedgeographical area may be divided up into regions based on the closestindustrial plant location (e.g. using a Voronoi tessellation), and eachof the regions (e.g. Voronoi cells) may be coloured (or otherwisedifferentiated) based how the parameters of the closest industrial plantcompares with the statistical analysis. In another embodiment,geographic positions between industrial plant locations may beassociated with a statistical value based on the statistical results ofneighbouring industrial plants (e.g. a weighted average of the threeclosest industrial plants where the influence of each neighbouringindustrial plant is scaled based on the distance to the geographicposition). This may allow potential industrial plant sites to beassessed more easily.

It will be appreciated that the statistical analysis method may be setby the user. For example, the user may elect to use the median value asthe average rather than the mean.

FIG. 20 is a schematic of the control apparatus. In this case, thecontrol apparatus 2000 comprises a memory 2091 storing a database 2092;a processor 2093; and a display 2001.

Memory 2091 may comprise one or more of, for example: a CD, a DVD, flashmemory, a floppy disk, a hard disk, volatile memory, non-volatile memoryor Random Access Memory.

A processor 2093 may comprise one or more of, for example: a centralprocessing unit (CPU); a microprocessor; a central processing unitcontained on a single integrated circuit (IC); an application-specificintegrated circuit (ASIC); an application-specific instruction setprocessor (ASIP); a graphics processing unit (GPU); a network processor,a microprocessor specifically targeted at the networking applicationdomain; a multi-core processor.

A display may comprise one or more of, for example: a cathode ray tubeor liquid crystal display (LCD); a computer screen; a smartphone screen;a tablet computer screen; a touchscreen; a projection screen; and atelevision screen.

A user interface controller may comprise one or more of, for example, atouchscreen, a keyboard, a mouse, a joystick, and a touchpad.

The controller may be configured to interact with remote databases topopulate the local database. The remote databases may be accessible viathe internet 2094. It will be appreciated that the memory, processor anddisplay may not be part of a single computer. That is, the variouscomponents may be stored across several devices. For example, thedatabase may be stored on a cloud computer. That is, the end user mayhave a client terminal which is configured to access a remote serverwhich performs the calculations. Some embodiments may be configured tomine published data (e.g. published on the internet). For example, thecontroller may be configured to extract key data points from electronicmedia (e.g.: XLS, PDF, XML, CSV, PPT, etc.) sources without userintervention store the extracted data in the database.

FIG. 21 is a flow diagram showing a method of processing data. That is,first a geographical area is selected. This geographical area is thendisplayed as a map view. The selected geographical area, in this case,includes a first subset of the corresponding locations in the database,each of the corresponding locations being associated with an industrialplant and other data relating to that industrial plant.

A statistical analysis is then performed on industrial plant performancedata corresponding to the selected data. The results of the statisticalanalysis are then displayed on the displayed geographical area.

The method comprises, in response to the selected geographical areabeing changed, displaying a new map comprising the newly selectedgeographical area and performing the statistical analysis of the plantswithin the newly selected geographical area for display on the map.

Although the present invention has been described and illustrated withrespect to preferred embodiments and preferred uses thereof, it is notto be so limited since modifications and changes can be made thereinwhich are within the full, intended scope of the invention as understoodby those skilled in the art.

1. A control apparatus comprising: memory comprising a database havingdata on industrial plant performance, each datum associated with alocation; a display configured to display a map comprising a selectedfirst geographical area, the first geographical area including a firstsubset of the corresponding locations in the database; a processorconfigured to perform a first statistical analysis on the industrialplant performance data associated with the first subset of thecorresponding locations in the database, and to enable display ofresults of the first statistical analysis on the displayed map; agraphical user interface controller configured to allow the user tochange the selected geographical area displayed from the firstgeographical area to a second geographical area, the second geographicalarea including a second subset of the corresponding locations in thedatabase, the second subset being different from the first subset; andwherein the processor is configured, in response to a change in thegeographical area being selected, to perform dynamically a secondstatistical analysis on the industrial plant performance data associatedwith locations within the second selected geographical area anddynamically to enable display of results of the second statisticalanalysis on the displayed map.
 2. The control apparatus of claim 1,wherein the selected geographical area corresponds to the area of a mapdisplayed on the display, such that the graphical user interfacecontroller is configured to allow the user to change the selectedgeographical area by changing the area of a map displayed on thedisplay.
 3. The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the graphical userinterface controller is configured to allow the user to change theselected geographical area by one or more of scrolling and zooming thearea of a map displayed on the display.
 4. The control apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the industrial plant data corresponds to oil drillingindustrial plants.
 5. The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein theindustrial plant data corresponds to mining industrial plants.
 6. Thecontrol apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control apparatus isconfigured to: in response to a user input, display a portion of thedatabase corresponding to data associated with the selected locations.7. The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control apparatus isconfigured to: in response to a first user input, filter data in thedatabase to generate a filtered subset of corresponding locations; andin response to a second user input, display a map corresponding to thefiltered data.
 8. The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controlapparatus is configured: to determine, as part of the statisticalanalysis, one or more of the average and the standard deviationparameters corresponding to the displayed subset of locations; and toenable display of the determinations by distinguishing locations basedon how the parameter associated with each location compares with one ormore of the determined average and the determined standard deviation. 9.The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control apparatus isconfigured: to enable, in response to a user input, selection of ageographical area by selecting a portion of a displayed map.
 10. Thecontrol apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control apparatus isconfigured to: in response to a user input, enable selection of ageographical area by selecting one or more characteristic from a list ofcharacteristics.
 11. The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein thecontrol apparatus is configured to: perform the statistical analysis oncorresponding locations within the selected geographical area only whenthe number of corresponding locations is below a predeterminedthreshold.
 12. The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the industrialplant locations are displayed on the map using industrial plant icons;and the results of the statistical analysis are displayed on thedisplayed map by differentiating the industrial plant icons.
 13. Thecontrol apparatus of claim 12, wherein the industrial plant icons aredifferentiated based on the statistical analysis using one or more of:different colors; different shapes; different sizes; different images;and different line styles.
 14. The control apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe statistical analysis comprises ranking the wells corresponding tolocations within the selected geographical area.
 15. A method, themethod comprising: accessing a database having data on industrial plantperformance, each datum associated with a location; displaying a mapcomprising a selected first geographical area, the first geographicalarea including a first subset of the corresponding locations in thedatabase; performing a first statistical analysis on the industrialplant performance data associated with the first subset of thecorresponding locations in the database, and to enable display ofresults of the first statistical analysis on the displayed map; changingthe selected geographical area displayed from the first geographicalarea to a second geographical area, the second geographical areaincluding a second subset of the corresponding locations in thedatabase, the second subset being different from the first subset; anddynamically performing, in response to a change in the geographical areabeing selected, a second statistical analysis on the industrial plantperformance data associated with locations within the second selectedgeographical area and enabling display dynamically of results of thesecond statistical analysis on the displayed map.